HATTIESBURG, Miss. (March 5, 2026) – The University of North Alabama baseball team travels to Hattiesburg, Miss. for a weekend series with No. 10 Southern Miss. beginning on Friday, March 6 at 6 p.m. This is the first road weekend series for North Alabama in 2026.
Live stats will be available via StatBroadcast. All three games are streamed through ESPN+ with all links being available through RoarLions.com.
North Alabama at #10 Southern Miss.
Friday, March 6, 2026
6:00 p.m.
Live Stats |
ESPN+
North Alabama at #10 Southern Miss.
Saturday, March 7, 2026
2:00 p.m.
Live Stats |
ESPN+
North Alabama at #10 Southern Miss.
Sunday, March 8, 2026
1:00 p.m.
Live Stats |
ESPN+
NOTES
THE RUNDOWN: The University of North Alabama baseball team fell to Ole Miss 8-5 on Wednesday night at Swayze Field. The Lions recorded 12 strikeouts against the Rebels, their second-highest total in a game this season. Ole Miss has been struck out 12 or more times in only one other game this year.
Jake Boynar made his third appearance of the season and struck out five batters across three innings while allowing one hit. North Alabama held a lead through the top of the sixth inning thanks to timely hitting and solo home runs from
Dylan Coleman and
Petey Craska. Coleman hit his team-best sixth home run of the season, while Craska finished 2-for-4 with a double, a home run and two runs scored. The Lions totaled eight hits, including three doubles and two home runs.
SERIES HISTORY: This will be the fourth all-time meeting between the two programs. These two last grouped up in 2022 for a weekend series that saw all three games go the Golden Eagles way by scores of 8-1, 7-3 and 14-1 respectively. Like this season, all three games were hosted at Pete Taylor Park in Hattiesburg, Miss. for 2022 opening weekend. Current UNA pitching coach,
Jacob James, was on the 2022 UNA team; he threw two innings in the opening game of the series.
SCOUTING THE GOLDEN EAGLES: Southern Miss is ranked 10th in the NCAA entering this weekend's slew of contests. USM is 11-2 with their two losses coming in the opening game to UC Santa Barbara (5-1) and the latest being Wednesday against Nicholls (3-2). So far, the Golden Eagles have beaten the likes of Purdue, Oregon State, Baylor, Mississippi State and even a run rule win over Alabama. USM has hosted six games at home with both of their losses this season coming inside Pete Taylor Park. Southern Miss hosted the NCAA Regionals last season in Hattiesburg before being eliminated as Miami (FL) moved on to Super Regionals.
STACK 'EM UP, KNOCK 'EM DOWN: During the midweek game against Ole Miss, the Lions used six pitchers to retire12 Rebels on Wednesday. The Ole Miss game was the first loss this season when striking out 12 or more batters in a single game -- UNA has done it two other times this season, against SIUE and Saint Louis (both 13 strikeouts). In 2025, North Alabama had three such games of 12 or more strikeouts; in 2026, that total was matched through 13 games.
NATIONAL RECOGNITION: Alongside an always-stout Atlantic Sun Conference schedule, the Lions get a look at three teams that made the NCAA Regionals last year in Murray State, Ole Miss and Southern Miss. The latter, Ole Miss and Southern Miss, both hosted Regionals in Oxford and Hattiesburg, respectively. However, Murray State, who played in Ole Miss's Regional, went the farthest in the tournament before falling in the College World Series to UCLA and Arkansas among the final eight teams. North Alabama hosts Murray State on Feb. 18 before returning to them on May 12. Ole Miss is a midweek game that leads into a weekend series against Southern Miss in early March.
THE HUMP: Head coach Jad Prachniak is notable for his tough scheduling. During the 2025 season, the Lions bolstered their schedule with a strong portion of SEC schools. UNA traveled to No. 25 Auburn, No. 1 Tennessee in February, had a weekend slate at No. 1 LSU in March, met No. 10 Alabama in Rocket City in March before their final SEC game against Mississippi State was canceled in May. North Alabama fell just short in the three midweek games between Auburn (6-2), Tennessee (7-5) and Alabama (4-3) by a combined seven runs -- Auburn was the largest deficit of four runs while Alabama had to walk off the Lions in Huntsville. On Wednesday, the Lions added Ole Miss to that list, where they led for six innings before resurgent Rebel bats finally joined the game to win, 8-5. During Prachniak's time at the helm, he has played Army (3x), Auburn (3x), Cincinnati (4x), LSU (3x), Ole Miss (2x), Alabama (1x), Mississippi State (1x), Tennessee (1x) and Vanderbilt (1x).
UP NEXT: After the weekend series with nationally-ranked Southern Miss, North Alabama gets a midweek home game against Jacksonville State on Tuesday, March 10 at 3 p.m. in Florence, Ala.
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